Breaking news: Four firefighters taken to hospital after fighting Chapin Road brush fire

Fire fed by dry ice storm brush

By Melissa McKeon

Four firefighters from Hubbardston, Holden and Paxton were taken to area hospitals suffering from heat exhaustion after helping to fight a more than 25-acre fire in the woods off Chapin Road in 90-degree heat this week.

Three of those transported by ambulance to the hospital suffered heat exhaustion in the upper-90-degree heat on Tuesday afternoon.

Holden Fire Chief Jack Chandler said he expected all the firefighters to recover; most were treated and released from the hospital.

Crews were still working on the fire Thursday morning, after the blaze was brought under control Tuesday evening, and after working through Wednesday with brush trucks from neighboring towns to help out with the effort.

“These guys are taking a beating,” Jim LeBlanc of Leominster Emergency Management said Tuesday as he watched small groups of firefighters emerge from the woods to be replaced by waiting crews.

The hot, tired firefighters were supplied with food and water, a misty spray and a chance to cool off in a trailer supplied by Leominster.

Chandler said the cooling unit was valuable in such high heat, but few firefighters wanted to stop work to take advantage of it.

By early Tuesday evening, Leominster Emergency Management had already passed out more than 200 bottles of water to crews fighting the fire. Holden's Community Emergency Response Team was also on hand delivering food and water to the command posts.

The three firefighters suffering Tuesday were part of what Chandler estimated was a more than 100-firefighter force from 16 towns and several state agencies that were on the scene Tuesday to help fight the fire in the woods at the end of Chapin Road, between Chapin and Sycamore Dr. The area where the fire was first discovered is in a partially cleared area where some development is in progress at a former tree farm.

DPW Crews working on higher ground on Chapel Street were the first to see the smoke early in the afternoon Tuesday; around 3 p.m., department personnel were able to locate the source of the smoke and begin to fight the fire. Tankers filling up at the nearest fire hydrant more than a mile away on Bailey Road had to tote all the water used to fight the fire in the area at the end of Chapin Road; there are few homes and no fire hydrants in that area. Crews fighting the fire from Sycamore had a water source.

Chandler said he expected it would take several days of wetting down the perimeter to get the last of the fire out. The fire was easily fed in the wooded area by brush still lying on the ground since the December 2008 ice storm.

No residences were threatened by the fire, Chandler said. But residents in the area of Salisbury Street near Fisher Road noticed smoke in the air around the time the fire was sighted by the DPW, and there were several calls during the night Tuesday reporting heavy smoke.

No cause of the fire has yet been established, Chandler said. The area has been used recently for camping.